In the transportation industry, vehicles transporting goods typically are identified as shipping assets. Shipping assets include truck drivers, tractors, trailers, containers, ships, railcars and airplanes. These shipping assets can sometimes be rearranged such that drivers operate different tractors and the driver-tractor combinations are sometimes coupled to different trailers at different times for different routes. In other instances, drivers are permanently assigned tractors. In some of these situations, the drivers may have a financial interest in the tractor which they use to haul loads. Further, in some instances, the drivers, tractors and trailers are permanently combined, linked, joined or associated with each other and are viewed as a singular shipping asset when special transport needs (for example, radioactive goods or large sized goods such as cranes) must be shipped from point to point. Special tractors must be coupled to special trailers to haul special goods. Sometimes, the drivers must have special skills. One type of permanently joined driver-tractor-trailer combination is called a “straight truck.”
In any economic environment, it is necessary to efficiently transport and deliver goods from distribution centers, ports, warehouses and other locations to retail stores, other warehouses and further ports and airports. The timing and scheduling of shipping assets and the scheduling of those assets to match transport needs of customers is a challenge. About 94% of independent carriers (companies employing shipping assets) have less than 30 trucks. Approximately 20-25% of these assets, that is, a driver-tractor-trailer combination, travel over routes without a full load or are completely empty. The transit of empty trucks is not an efficient use of shipping assets. Further, the matching of a customer's need to ship goods from point to point within a designated time frame (both the pick-up day, time and location and the delivery day, time and location) with available shipping assets at the most reasonable price and/or performance (historical on-time delivery percentage and/or an absence of delivery/shipment problems) is a challenge. There is a need to provide and manage logistics for the transport of goods and the efficient use of shipping assets.